Mysterious Truck May Become Issue In Nichols Trial

By |March 29, 2004

There is at least one unsolved mystery in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing case: how a furnace builder’s pickup truck came to be involved. The L.A. Weekly reports that nine years after the bombing, the newspaper’s investigation into the truck has raised more questions about whether a broader conspiracy was responsible for the bombing. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols, already convicted in a federal case, now is on trial on state charges.

Suspicion that the bombing involved a Middle Eastern connection began with an FBI all-points bulletin three hours after the for a brown Chevy pickup seen speeding away from the area, with two Middle Eastern-looking men inside. The FBI later canceled the alert, and has never said why.

More information may emerge about the truck during Nichols’ trial. The pickup’s owner told the L.A. Weekly that the defense has subpoenaed him to testify.

TCR AT A GLANCE

The award honors individuals in the media or media-related fields who have advanced national understanding on the 21st century challenges of criminal justice. It will be presented Feb 16, 2017 at a dinner at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

It's almost impossible for the bureau to track people like the North Carolina man who fired shots in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in a quest for a phony child sex ring. “There’s not a lot of bandwidth for ... these one-offs.” says former FBI official Ron Hosko.

The New York Times, which tracked every shooting in Chicago, returns to the area where many of them are concentrated. "It's about desperation, decadence, depression and rage,” says the Rev. Marshall E. Hatch Sr., who has given eulogies for at least 12 victims of violence this year.

"Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems," says director Tom Frieden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The heroin-related death total topped the number of gun homicides by 10 cases.